Everyday

Everyday, we walk past thousands of people, each with the potential to become your friend, your foe, or even your lover. Each with their own stories to tell, their own hardships to undergo, and their own accomplishments. The world is amazingly huge isn't it? Yet for some reason, at least in the Singaporean culture, we just walk past everyone each day without even making the effort to converse or build bonds with them.

I remember one time on a Sunday evening when I was on my way to book in to Sungei Gedong, i was happily sitting and playing my phone, not having a care in the world when I suddenly got the feeling that the kid beside me was watching the contents on my phone, which was probably just "Cookie Run" or something? I'm ashamed to say that the first emotion I felt was irritance, that my privacy has somehow been invaded although ironically,  i was in public. I turned around with a fairly annoyed look on my face, and there it was, a teen around 13-15 engrossly staring at the little gingerbread man running in my Samsung note 3. I kept looking at him, hoping he will notice that he's being watched and would eventually turn away due to awkwardness when he finally looked at me and said "Hey, what game is this?" in a rather curious, amicable tone. Something I've never expected from a stranger especially from someone who is "rudely invading your privacy". In that moment, all my annoyance vanished into thin air as I was approached with affability. It was then I realized that I had unknowingly became a grouche due to social standards of "Minding your own business when you're on public transport". Feeling ashamed, i responded and started having a conversation with this pleasant boy. I think I did a pretty good job hiding my shame though! We had a good conversation about our plans for the future and eventually parted ways when he reached his station.

As it turns out, this boy was from a school that was catered to kids with learning disabilities. Which kinda came to me as no surprise because no "normal singaporean" in this day and age would engage in a conversation like that with a stranger in a public transport, not unless you're an elderly who is asking for directions and just happen to drift into another conversation or something. (I've had a few encounters with them before, contrary to what many of our parents taught us, I actually enjoy talking to strangers from time to time.)

That kid had something that a lot of us has lost. The purity of the heart to just approach another human being without the fear of being reproached. Sad right? Our generation has became so pathetic that it takes a kid from a special school to create bonds with others while the "normal" ones like us gotta just stick to being stuck in our own little virtual world through a device no larger than a brick. This kid has balls man!

Perhaps one day our social norms might change again, perhaps into one more positive in the sense that using your phone on public transport would be considered rude instead as you're shut off from the world and people would start knowing each other more through actual conversations. Wouldnt that be awesome? :D

Oh yeah, happy valentines day! :)